Geek Syndicate
1) the story was well realised with beautiful sound design (not overpowering for a change) and gorgeous effects work. 2) It felt very much like a stand alone adventure which is something I genuinely miss in my Doctor Who. Rating: ing set in 1983, a year in which I was happily playing with my He-Man toys and watching Robin of Sherwood and The ATeam along with Doctor Who really makes me feel my age slightly! Historical indeed! The new design for the Ice Warrior is stunningly realised – the change of two fingered claw to Sontaran style three-fingered affair makes sense and the armoured martian really looks threatening in the dim-light of the submarine. Personally, I didn’t like the Martian leaving it’s armour for most of the episode, although this did lend more of an “Alien” vibe to proceedings as the (presumably) naked Ice Warrior could then skitter about in far more constrained areas than it would otherwise be able to. wiry creature had the strength to perform some of the feats that it did. Also, those fingers would never fit into the armour’s gauntlets. Secondly, there is a scene where the Doctor and Skaldak (the Ice Warrior in the episode) are talking and Skaldak is hidden in the steam-filled ceiling of the submarine. The face of the Warrior is shown and to me it seemed very flat. Oddly enough, later the Warrior is back in its armour and removes it’s helmet. At this point the head of the creature is shown off properly and it’s a lovely CG creation that I think fits the race perfectly. Odd that the same model can have different impacts in different circumstances.
G G G GG
Cold War
On a Russian submarine, a frozen alien warrior is waking up, just as the TARDIS arrives. My wariness for this episode came mainly from the rebooting of another classic villain. I’ve had mixed feelings about the other re-boots – save the Silurians which I’m not a fan of. Except Madame Vastra! So ho